Polyurethane-15 ●
TL;DR. This ingredient is used primarily as a film-former and binder, creating flexible, water-resistant films in color cosmetics, hair styling, and long-wear products. It helps improve adhesion, wear time, and transfer resistance.
What does Polyurethane-15 do in a cosmetic formula?
This ingredient is used primarily as a film-former and binder, creating flexible, water-resistant films in color cosmetics, hair styling, and long-wear products. It helps improve adhesion, wear time, and transfer resistance.
Is Polyurethane-15 clean?
From a clean-beauty perspective, it has friction because it is a synthetic, persistent film-forming polymer, even though skin irritation potential is generally low due to its high molecular weight. Some clean frameworks flag this class for microplastic and polymer-residue concerns rather than direct skin sensitization.
Is Polyurethane-15 sustainable?
This material is typically made from petrochemical feedstocks and is not readily biodegradable. Its main sustainability issue is environmental persistence after rinse-off or wear-off, especially when used as an insoluble film-forming particle or dispersion.
Is Polyurethane-15 COSMOS-approved?
It is not permitted under COSMOS-natural or COSMOS-organic standards because it is a synthetic petrochemical polymer outside the allowed chemistry set. Its Green Chemistry alignment is weak, with limited renewable sourcing, poor biodegradability, and end-of-life persistence concerns.
How does Polyurethane-15 work chemically?
The molecule is a high-molecular-weight synthetic polymer built with repeating urethane linkages, designed to form coherent, flexible films after solvent or water evaporation. It is generally stable across normal cosmetic pH ranges and is often supplied as a dispersion or solution, with performance depending on plasticizers, neutralizers, solvents, and other film-formers in the formula.
Last updated 2026-05-13